Getting Even (14 page)

I
groan softly when I hear the phone ring. Stretching across the bed, I glance at the phone’s call display.

“It’s Claudia,” I say, and I debate whether or not I should answer it. Glenn’s leaving in a couple hours.

“You think it’s important?” Glenn asks. He’s lying beside me, running a fingertip over the palm of my hand. We just finished eating Chinese takeout, since we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave the house. Elmore Leonard’s
Be Cool
is playing on the DVD.

The phone stops ringing. “I guess not,” I answer.

But no sooner does the phone stop ringing than it starts again. Again, I see Claudia’s number on the caller ID.

“I’d better get this.” Glenn sinks his teeth into my ass as I grab the receiver. “Glenn, stop it,” I giggle, angling my head over my shoulder to face him. He uses his tongue instead, running the tip of it over my skin, and I do my best to tune him out. “Hey, you.”

For a moment, I hear nothing. Then I hear some ghastly choking sort of sound, and panic grips my heart like icy tentacles. “Claudia?”

“H-h-he…he…he…”

If this is Claudia, she sounds nothing like herself, which has me even more concerned. “Honey, are you okay?”

“Come…over…Please.”

I hang up the receiver, already jumping from the bed. Glenn’s hands slide down my body, but I move away from him before he can grab me.

“Babe?” His tone is worried.

“That was Claudia. She sounds…she sounds friggin’ awful.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, but I have to go there right away. Damn, I wonder if she called Annelise.” I snap on my bra, then reach for the phone again. I quickly call Annelise. The machine picks up. “Hey, Annie. It’s Lishelle. When you get this message, call me right away. I’m heading out now so—”

There’s the sound of the receiver being picked up. “Hello?” Annelise says.

“Did Claudia call you?” I ask.

“No. Well, maybe. The phone rang a couple times, but—”

“I just got a call from her. I’m not sure what’s going on, but she sounded fucking awful, and I’m heading over there right now. Maybe you should, too.”

“Oh my God, of course. What did she say?”

“She couldn’t even tell me. She sounded that bad.”

“But things were great just this afternoon.”

“They’re obviously not great now. I’ll see you there, okay?”

I replace the receiver and spin around to face Glenn. “I’m sorry,” I tell him.

“Want me to go with you?”

“You have to get ready to leave. Don’t you have to be at the airport in a few hours?”

“Yeah, but…”

I shimmy into my jeans. “I think this is one for the girls. But thanks for the offer.”

Glenn sits up in bed, his gaze landing on my chaise and his clothes that are stacked there. “All right.”

“You don’t have to leave right now,” I tell him as I slip into a T-shirt. “I’ll give you a key, in case I don’t get back before you have to go. Which I’m pretty sure I won’t.” I’m already walking toward my purse, which is on the floor beside my bed. I hurriedly pull out my key ring, where I have a second key.

I pass Glenn the key. “Here—” I yelp when he pulls me onto the bed and on top of him.

“Glenn,” I admonish. “I really have to go.”

“I know.” He surprises me with a soft kiss, the kind that lifts you up when you’re feeling down. “But I wanted to give you a kiss before you run out. I won’t see you until next weekend.”

In my haste to leave my house, I’ve forgotten this fact. “I’m not sure I can get used to this—you leaving all the time. I like having you around.”

“I’m working on that,” he tells me. “Meeting a couple investors in Phoenix this week, actually.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh.”

His fingers press into the small of my back, a subtle sign that he wants me to stay. I pull away from him, moaning softly. “You know I want to stay here, but Claudia needs me.”

“Go be with your girl. I love you,” he adds in a soft whisper.

“I love you, too.”

A pang of regret stings me as I slide my body off Glenn’s. He holds my gaze.

I blow him a kiss, then turn and walk out of the room. Somehow, it seems right—leaving the man who’s always had my heart lying naked in my bed.

Claudia is a complete mess. When she opens her door to me, she looks as if she’s had a date with a makeup artist for corpses. She’s pale, sickly so. Her normally perfect hair is flat on one side and spiky on the other. Her eyes and lips are red, and tear-streaks stain her foundation.

Her entire face looks swollen, like she’s been crying since last week.

I draw her into my arms. “Oh, baby. Baby, what happened?”

Gasping sounds escape her, as though she’s trying to speak but there’s a hole in her vocal cords.

I squeeze her, rub her back in support, my own eyes filling with tears. I’ve seen this kind of grief before. Saw it in my mother’s eyes when she stood over her mother’s casket at her funeral.

“Okay, Claudia.” I exhale nervously. “You’re scaring me here.”

“A…Adam…”

My pulse quickens with dread. “He’s not hurt, is he?” The tragic possibilities fill my mind. A car accident. A mugging. God, no. “Claudia?”

“H-h-he…h-he…”

Icy fear shoots through me. I pull back and look into Claudia’s eyes. “No, honey.” I shake my head, but I’m fearing the worst. “Tell me nothing awful happened to him.
Please.
”

Now she shakes her head, wiping her eyes as she does. “Not hurt.” She takes a deep breath. “He…” Her face crumbles, but she forces herself to go on. “Doesn’t want t-to get m-married.”

The first thing I feel is a wave of relief. Then profound shock. In fact, it takes several seconds for me to find my voice.

“Adam doesn’t want to get married?” I ask, praying I’ve misunderstood.

Fresh tears fill Claudia’s eyes. All she can do is shake her head.

“But the wedding’s in a few weeks! What do you mean he doesn’t want to get married?”

Claudia is crying. Deep, racking sobs that break my heart.

I step into her place and close the door behind me. Then I take her by the shoulders and lead her into the living room. This has got to be the absolute worst thing that could happen to her. Worse, even, than Adam dying in some tragic way.

She slumps into the soft leather sofa, looking more defeated than I’ve ever seen her.

“Did he really tell you he doesn’t want to get married?”

She nods.

“How long ago?”

“Couple hours ago.”

I reach for the box of Kleenex, pull several out and pass the wad to Claudia. “Tell me what happened. Exactly.”

“We were out. For dinner. Didn’t get t-to eat. Said he’s not in love with m-me.”

“Okay, now I know I’m not hearing you right. How could he say he’s not in love with you? You’ve been together for what, four years?”

“Loves me…not
in
love with me.”

Claudia buries her face in her hands.

I do the only thing I can. I sit beside her and rub my hand over her back.

The sound of pounding on the door startles us both. At first I think it must be Adam, and Claudia must draw the same conclusion based on how her eyes light up. But then I remember that I called Annelise.

“That’s probably Annelise,” I say. “I called her after you called me.”

I hope I’m wrong, though. I hope that it
is
Adam, so the shit head can tell Claudia that he momentarily lost his mind.

Not getting married…I shake my head with disgust as I open the door.

As I figured, it’s Annelise. Her blue eyes meet mine with concern.

“What’s going on?” she asks.

“It’s Adam,” I whisper. “He broke off the engagement a couple hours ago.”

“What?” Annelise gasps.

“I can’t believe it, either.”

Annelise’s expression hardens as she steps into the house. She looks all around as if she expects to see Adam and slap him upside the head. Of course, Claudia is the only one inside, and she looks inconsolable as she sits hunched over on her sofa, quietly crying. Annelise rushes to her and wraps her in a hug.

I take a seat on the opposite side of Claudia. “Did you and Adam have a fight?”

“No.”

“Nothing? No disagreement, even over something small?”

“No,” Claudia stresses. “And that’s the thing. I don’t get why he did this all of a sudden.”

“Tell us exactly what happened,” I instruct her.

Claudia inhales a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Somehow, she’s keeping it together. I know when David and I split, I was like a walking zombie. For the first few days after I learned of his affair, I couldn’t even put my clothes on straight.

“After the bridal fitting, Adam wanted to get something to eat. I told him I wasn’t hungry, but he was. We went to the Cheesecake Factory. Then he was acting all strange, didn’t want to order any food. I asked him what was wrong, and the next thing I know…”

Claudia can’t finish her statement, so I fill Annelise in. “She said Adam told her he loves her but isn’t
in
love with her.”

Annelise’s pretty blue eyes widen in shock. “He did not say that.”

“Uh-huh,” Claudia confirms between tears. “One minute we were in his back seat and I was giving him a blow job, the next he’s dumping me. I do everything to please him. Everything! How could he just blurt out that he doesn’t want to get married?”

“You mean he wants to postpone it,” Annelise says. “Right?”

Claudia shakes her head. “It’s over, Annie.”

“No,” Annelise says in a horror-filled voice.

“I don’t understand. We were so happy.”

For a long moment we’re all silent.

I think long and hard about the situation as Claudia pulls herself together. And surprisingly, I don’t want to kick the shit out of Adam. Because this makes no sense, he’s obviously got a serious case of pre-wedding jitters. “Listen,” I say. “He can’t mean that. It’s not like you were dating only a few weeks before planning a wedding. You were together for four years. Long enough to know if you’re ready to walk down the aisle. He’s got to have cold feet. Hon, I think he freaked out. Nothing else makes sense.”

“Of course.” Annelise sounds relieved. “He got cold feet. Sweetie, that happens all the time. Sometimes, a couple can be together for ten years, and as soon as they’re about to get married, one or both has some sort of panic attack.”

Claudia’s eyes light up with hope. “You think so?”

“Definitely,” I tell her. “No one waits until a few weeks before the wedding to tell you he isn’t in love with you. Come on.”

“The whole time he was telling me this, he couldn’t even look at me.”

“And what does that tell you?” I ask.

“Yeah, what does that tell you?” Annelise echoes.

“The guy’s confused,” I insist. “And if he isn’t, I’ll kick his fucking ass. Honestly, if he isn’t in love with you, Claudia, then what the fuck’s he been doing all these years?”

“I want to believe that.”

“Have you talked to your parents yet?” I ask.

“No. I couldn’t. I only called you two. What do I do? Cancel the wedding?”

“No,” I exclaim. “Don’t you dare. You’ve got three weeks until your wedding day. I bet that by the end of the week—maybe even sooner—Adam will be singing a different tune.”

Claudia nods. “Okay. I—I won’t.”

God, poor Claudia. She sounds so scared.

“Oh, hon.” Annelise gives Claudia another hug. “I don’t know what’s going on with Adam, but whatever you need, we’re here for you.”

“That’s right,” I concur. “Whatever you need.”

Claudia reaches for both of us, taking one of our hands. “I know. And thank you for coming. I feel better. You always make me feel better. That’s why I love you so much.”

At least Claudia seems hopeful again, and for that I’m glad. I want this to work out for her. I really do. But I’ll tell you one thing—if Adam is fucking her over, the little shit is gonna have to answer to me.